Our guests are Yusuke Fukuzaki and Ryo Yamazaki, co-owners of SSAW www.ssawbrooklyn.com/ in Brooklyn, New York. The duo opened SSAW in November 2024 to serve “a refined ‘New Japanese’ dining experience, where traditional craftsmanship meets contemporary innovation,” according to its website.

Yusuke has worked at top restaurants in Japan, including the three-Michelin-starred Kagurazaka ISHIKAWA and KOHAKU. Along with Ryo’s Japanese-style Omotenashi hospitality, the eight-seat charming space has become a quintessential Japanese restaurant where you get the sense of belonging to a special community like in the popular Japanese drama series Midnight Diner.

In this episode, we will discuss why Yusuke left a successful chef career in Japan and moved to the U.S., how he balances authenticity and creativity on his dishes, how Ryo manages to realize the Japanese-style hospitality at SSAW, the restaurant’s unique sake list and the principle behind it and much, much more!!!

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Our guest is Reverend Dr. Masaki Matsubara who is an eighteenth-generation Zen priest in the Japanese Rinzai tradition. His career is unique and impressive. Following his Zen monastic training in Heirinji Monastery in Japan, he moved to the US in 1999 to study at Cornell University where he eventually earned a PhD in Asian religions. Since then, he has taught Buddhist studies at prominent institutions, including U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University, Cornell University, Brown University and The University of Tokyo. Also, Rev. Matsubara is the head abbot of Butsumoji Zen Temple in Chiba, Japan,

We tend to think of Zen as a part of Buddhist practices but it is quite prevalent in Japanese people’s minds and their society overall. It would be valuable for us to get to know the idea of Zen in understanding Japanese food culture as well as living a good life.

In this episode, we will discuss why Rev. Matsubara decided to study and teach Buddhism abroad, what exactly Zen is and why it is instrumental and effective for us in navigating our daily lives, the concept of Engi, which can give us a fresh way to see our existence, Rev. Matsubara’s personal Zen practice and much, much more!!!

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Our guest is Joshua Walker who is the President and CEO of Japan Society https://japansociety.org/ in New York. Joshua has a very intriguing background. He was raised in Japan and spent his formative years in Hokkaido, northern Japan.

Since Joshua left Japan at the age of 18, he has been working in global affairs and is known as a perpetual bridge-builder, citizen diplomat and trained academic with a specialization in East Asia and the Middle East. After gaining diverse global experiences, he became the president and CEO of Japan Society in December 2019.

Joshua joined us in Episode #210 in November 2020 and discussed his fascinating background and the culture of Hokkaido he loves.

In this episode, we will discuss various topics about Japanese culture overall with Joshua’s profound perspective, including what makes Japanese culture distinctive, where the unique Japanese mindset comes from, his thoughts on the lessons learned during World War II that ended 80 years ago with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings and much, much more!!!

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